do i have to pay my last month's rent?

[prettypretty]

I'm a student and I owe the last month's rent on a shared house. The Landlord is a moron who's been completely unfair to all the tennants and wanted us to leave as one of our housemates upped and left without saying anything to us or the Landlord. He will not give back our deposits which were �300 each. This is how much rent I owe him. Can I get away with this?! Many thanks in advance!

[twiglet4frog]

u need to ask him for written confirmation as to why he is witholding your deposit as this can only be done for damage or repairs needed between u leaving and him renting out to new people. once he has given u it then u need to see what reasons he has given and put them right and photograph the reasons.

If he refuses to give u written confirmation then i would refuse paying any more rent and consult a solicitor or citizens advice

[Gevs1966]

It depends on what is stated in your contract. twiglet4frog may be correct but go through your contract thoroughly to find out where you stand.

[acw]

In practical terms, if your landlord was stupid enough to make the deposit equal to or less than the final month's rent then he deserves everything he gets.  The whole POINT of a deposit is to give him the upper hand in case you damage the property. 

 

In legal terms, trying to evict you because someone else sounds a bit harsh - but it could be in your contract.  More likely would be a clause that said that if one of you didn't pay, he could demand the money from the rest of you, or just from any one of you.  Look for words like "jointly liable" or "jointly and severably liable" on your contract. 

 

Finally on a practical note, landlords/ladys sometimes (perhaps frequently) ask for a reference from your previous landlord/lady before agreeing to let the property to you.  For that reason alone it might be worth being nice to him.  Although you could always tell white lies in the future about not knowing his address. 

[MargeB]

I have once (and only ONCE) had a contract which said that I would be chucked out on day 19 of the month if rent was not paid. In practise they don't do this.

Deposit is something you hand over in case there is damage/loss etc. To most landlords it means 'nice tidy bonus I can steal from people', in my experience.

Normally I would NEVER EVER EVER pay the last months rent. Most landlords would withold it and you may have an acrid court battle to resolve.

This is all sad, it should not be this way. I once had a 60 year old landlord who invaded my privacy in my 1 bed pad in London at least once a week, would just let himself in 'to collect something', I had a signed contract etc etc. Then it turned out he was just divorced. Then it turned out he was probably quite lonely. For 4 years he came round at least once a week and we became very close friends. The whole question of money was then just a formality. This is the way it should be.

I only mention this because I found in subsequent situations that if you have a calm chat with your landlord and they realize that you are in fact of the same species of hominid as them, it is very very rare to then find someone who will then try to rip you off.

This situation is one of the best reasons for buying a house...

[prettypretty]

thank you all so much, esp Marge B! I have tried reasoning with him however he is a money grabbing git with no soul so I cannot say anything to him that pulls at any heart strings!! I think it's just horrible the way we all get ripped off, esp students by evil landlords!! anyway, thanks for the advice! xxx